Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
New Extended-Release Pill May Finally Outwit Stomach's Defense Mechanisms
Stat: Pop-Up Pill Could Stay In Stomach To Release Drugs For Days
A meeting between Bill Gates and Boston researchers four years ago has led to the development of a multi-dose capsule that, researchers said, could solve one of medicine’s more vexing problems: delivering oral drugs over an extended period of time with one dose. The new device has so far only been tested on pigs, not humans, but results published Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine could pave the way for human trials next year. “There’s a reason nobody’s ever been able to do this before,” said Dr. Andrew Bellinger, cofounder of Lyndra, a health care company that licensed the capsule technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he is a practicing cardiologist. “It was pretty challenging.” (Tedeschi, 11/16)
Los Angeles Times: Star-Shaped Drug Dispenser Stays In Gut To Deliver Medication For Weeks
Wrought in metal and wielded by a ninja, one star-shaped device can deliver swift, silent death. Now, researchers have unveiled a star-shaped device designed to deliver health for weeks at a time. A team of Boston-based engineers and physicians on Wednesday demonstrated a first: a multi-pronged drug-delivery mechanism capable of withstanding the tumultuous and corrosive forces that prevail in the human gut for as long as two weeks. (Healy, 11/16)
